Volume 4, Number 1, October, 2007

Welcome to Ahoya! Engineers–Marquette University's College of Engineering e-Newsletter for alumae, alumni, students and their families, faculty, staff, and MU friends.

Be sure to visit the College Web site at http://www.marquette.edu/engineering for complete information on your College.

Exploring Engineering.   While the freshman engineering students were just getting settled into their first weeks of classes, your College was already reaching out to prospective students for the class of 2008.  On Saturday morning, September 8th, the annual Engineering Workshops were packed to capacity with over 170 high school students interested in experiencing life as a college student – but without all the homework.

Students participated in experiments in Biocomputing, Bioelectronics and Biomechanics Engineering; designed bridges and then tested their load capacity; built circuits; designed, constructed and tested aerodynamic bodies in a wind tunnel; and built DC motors.  One other workshop, Engineering for Young Women, explored how engineering is the new “helping profession” and one of discovery, design, imagination, innovation and contribution.

Professor Frank Jacoby explains to workshop participants how to build a circuit

And Exploring Marquette Engineering. The morning workshops were only the beginning of a very busy day for your College.  At noon, the doors to Engineering were opened to the public to showcase the top-notch education that your College has to offer.  Highlighting the engineering programs through information sessions and laboratory tours, guests had an opportunity to speak one-on-one with faculty, students and administrators and to also learn more about the Engineering Co-op Program, ROTC programs, and student organizations and activities.

Outside of Olin Engineering, high school First Robotics teams, with which your College partnered and mentored, last year, were also on hand to proudly display their robots.  Enthusiasm and pride were clearly evident as these future engineers explained how they designed and built their creative machines.

On the other side of the Engineering building, across 16th Street, your Engineering Student Council hosted its first annual Classic Car and Bike show, featuring all kinds of makes and models of vehicles.  Proud owners of the cars and bikes were available all afternoon to show off their classics and explain how they refurbished them.

Inside and outside, your College shined, as it showed what all it can offer future engineering students.

Looking To The Future.  With resumes in hand and their “30-second commercials” prepared, your Engineering students walked into a packed Technical Career Fair on September 27th to learn about the many opportunities awaiting them for Co-op positions, summer internships and entry-level engineering jobs.

Almost 100 engineering employers were in attendance to advertise their career opportunities, collect resumes of potential job candidates, and even to schedule interviews with students the next day.  As pleased as they were with attendance, company representatives were heard asking for even more prospective engineers with whom they wanted to speak.  It wasn’t uncommon to hear “we need more civil engineers” or “where are all the computer and electrical engineers?” as you walked from booth to booth.
The future is bright for your students in engineering.  According to CareerMarketplace.com, “even an increased pace in engineering graduates in the U.S. is not keeping up with the demand for engineers.  In the next 10 to 15 years an estimated 77 million baby boomers will retire.  By 2010, more than half of all workers in the U.S. will be over 40.  This dramatic shift in employee demographics will put a great deal of pressure on employers to maintain the knowledge and experience within their engineering departments and even bigger pressures on HR departments to find and attract qualified engineers.”

Contrary to popular belief, good engineering jobs are not all moving off-shore.  CareerMarketplace.com states that although “Global competition for engineering assignments will continue to increase over the next few years, the current trend in off-shoring is to move repetitive engineering process to less expensive sources so that core engineering and new product development can be focused on by the engineers on site.”

So students, all those engineering lectures and tests are worth it - hang in there, get your engineering degree and know that your future is bright!

Learning A New Tool.   While on campus for the Career Fair, Aaron Podbelski, Engineering ‘05, of Cypress Semiconductor Corporation, presented a seminar on PSoC (Programmable System on a Chip) to undergraduate Electrical and Mechanical Engineering students.  Manufactured by Cypress Semiconductor, PSoC Express is a tool for microcontroller development that separates logic and programming.  Therefore, it is possible to build functional PSoC-based products without writing a line of code.  Your Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering has purchased twenty of the Cypress evaluation boards, with which students can test both the digital and analog resources available with PSoC.

Sharing Pizza With Alums.   While the upperclassmen were busy handing out resumes at the Career Fair, your freshman engineering students were enjoying pizza and bowling with your alumni.  An annual tradition, the COE Alumni Board hosted the freshmen at the Annex to meet your newest students in Engineering.  The food was great, the bowling intense, and the following lucky students won raffle prizes:  Richard Bobinger, Demetric Thompson, Simon Kerr, Peter Geerts, Richard Reed and Cody Meyer (yes, your women freshman students were in attendance also – they just didn’t win any prizes!).

Freshman students enjoying pizza and bowling

Save The Date, Alumni!   Your Engineering Alumni Board has already locked in the date for its next Silent Auction and Basketball Game event.  Reserve Saturday, March 1, 2008 on your calendar (which is also National Marquette Day) for the Silent Auction and reception beginning at 11:00 AM, followed by the tip off of Marquette Men’s Basketball vs. Georgetown at 1:00 PM.

Join them for an opportunity to meet, greet and outbid fellow alumni.  Past auction items have included Packers and Bucks tickets, snow blowers, restaurant gift certificates and more.  Game ticket and reception will be $50 per person and reception only will be $35 per person.

Questions?  Please contact Theresa Nemetz at 414/288-4768 or theresa.nemetz@marquette.edu.  To register online, please visit www.alumni.marquette.edu/engineering . 

Developing Lifesaving Sensors. Dr. Fabien Josse, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is part of a multi-national, multi-disciplinary research team working to develop “Smart” bio-sensors and chemical sensors.  Team members include Marquette faculty Dr. Stephen Heinrich, Professor of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering; Dr. Edwin Yaz, Chair and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Dr. Susan Schneider, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Dr. Dean Jeutter, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, and Dr. Jeanne Hossenlopp, Chair and Associate Professor of the Department of Chemistry.  The Marquette researchers are collaborating with research teams at the University of Heidelberg in Germany, the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the University of Crete, the IXL at the University of Bordeaux, France, The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, and various national laboratories here in the U.S.     

What is a sensor?  A very basic definition of sensor is: A device that receives and responds to a signal or stimulus.  A “Smart” sensor combines sensors with advanced signal processing to increase accuracy; it is sensitive and selective in its response and therefore very accurate.  In addition to developing sensors that are “Smart,” Dr. Josse and the research teams are working to make these sensors rapid, low-cost, and field-deployable.  The ideal sensor is highly accurate, responds in seconds or minutes, and can analyze or respond to multiple stimuli or signals.  Quick response time and high accuracy make the “Smart” sensor an extremely valuable tool.

How can “Smart” sensors be used in everyday life?  The possibilities are virtually limitless.  Sensors can be low-cost, healthcare solutions by providing rapid detection of an antibody (primary immune defense in the body) or antigen (toxin, bacteria, or virus) in the blood.  In other words, a more rapid and accurate diagnosis of disease than is currently available.  Low cost, ease of use in the field, and rapid diagnosis of disease can help to make huge strides toward improving healthcare all over the world and particularly in developing countries.  These same types of sensors can be used to detect bio-warfare agents such as anthrax.  Diabetics can benefit from the development and use of non-invasive glucose sensors.  A sensor on the skin can provide constant, accurate, blood glucose levels and eliminate the need for taking repeated blood samples to monitor glucose levels.  Treatment of an individual’s diabetes can be significantly improved and painful blood tests eliminated.  On the battlefield, each soldier may wear a sensor that can provide an instant warning or information on chemical warfare or bio-warfare agents that may be present.  Workers wearing sensors can be made aware instantly of potentially dangerous changes in their work environment, the modern equivalent of the canary traditionally carried by miners.  “Smart” sensors may also be used to detect C-reactive protein in the blood.  C-reactive protein in the blood indicates inflammation in the heart and is one of the most accurate predictors of heart attack.  The list of possible applications goes on . . .

The “Smart’ sensor applications discussed here are potentially life-saving or can significantly improve the quality of life for people worldwide.   Dr. Josse, his Marquette colleagues, and the international research teams are continuing the Marquette mission of engineers, chemists, biochemists, and other scientists in service to others.  They are taking our motto “Be the Difference” to a whole new level. 

Biomedical Students Utilize The DLC For Research Projects.  Students in your Department of Biomedical Engineering have been putting the Discovery Learning Center to accelerated use in developing their research projects.   Biomedical Engineering research requires a considerable amount of electro-mechanical apparatus and the DLC has just what they need.

After completing training, students can use drill presses, lathes, and mills to produce their own parts under the guidance of your College’s professional machinists.  Throughout the summer and fall, undergraduate research assistants and graduate students of Drs. Robert Scheidt, Brian Schmit and Jack Winters have utilized the shop.  This activity has given your students more practical "real world" experience and the opportunity to interact with technical personnel.  It has also enabled them to get some of their project work done when the shop personnel were busy with other priorities. 

Your College anticipates such activity will increase over time as all of the engineering departments utilize the DLC for research support.

Nutta On, Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. student,
at work in the DLC

Mikus Awarded Scholarship.  Amy Mikus, a senior in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, has received the 2007 Michael Odill Memorial Scholarship. Michael Odill, a 1981 graduate of Marquette University, died in a construction related accident a number of years ago and the scholarship was established in his memory. The award is given annually to a student in civil engineering who possesses the same personal qualities of Michael and who has achieved academic success.

Amy Mikus with Dr. Tom Wenzel, Department Chair
and Dr. Michael Switzenbaum, Executive Associate Dean

Award To Support Transformational Educational Processes.  The Kern Family Foundation has awarded $50,000 to your College to participate in the Kern Entrepreneurship Education Network (KEEN) to develop “Student Transformation through Innovation Exercises.”  With the goal of building an entrepreneurial mindset in your undergraduate students, the proposal was written by Drs. Joseph Schimmels, Professor, James Rice, Associate Professor, and John Borg, Assistant Professor, all in the Department of Mechanical Engineering; Dr. George Corliss, Professor in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering; and Mr. Tim Keane, with the Kohler Center for Entrepreneurship in the College of Business Administration.         

Funding will be used to develop a series of practice-oriented innovation exercises to transform students into proactive agents of change with an entrepreneurial mindset that will allow them to choose among the best assignments at the best organizations (including their own) throughout their careers.  To realize these objectives, the award will focus on three initiatives in the submitted proposal:  develop Innovation Exercises to be embedded into selected existing required courses; develop a suite of themed student Innovation Enterprises, each of which acts as a small company that provides new services/products each year; and establish a college technical elective course that allows students to pursue self-directed entrepreneurial activities and that requires collaboration with the existing Kohler Center for Entrepreneurship.

Tau Beta Pi Celebrating Milestone Anniversary.  Marquette’s Chapter of Tau Beta Pi (WI-Beta) is celebrating their 75th anniversary this year as a chapter of this distinguished national organization.  Tau Beta Pi represents the top academic engineering students of your College, inviting the top 1/8th of juniors and top 1/5th of seniors to join.  During Marquette’s 75 years as a chapter, 2,778 students have been initiated.  Congratulations on a great 75 years and we’re looking forward to plenty more!

EWB Activities Planned.  Your Marquette student chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB-Marquette) has a very exciting and ambitious year planned!  Last year, the chapter successfully brought safe drinking water to children in a rural Guatemalan orphanage through the design and implementation of a solar powered water system.  This year, they’re undertaking an even more ambitious schedule with three international infrastructure projects in developing countries, several domestic initiatives, and a very enthusiastic group of students!  This year, the chapter will be completing the following projects:
December 2007
- Mississippi, USA: Hurricane Katrina recovery work, trip 3
January 2008
- Guatemala: Solar powered water pumping system, phase 1 implementation
- Dominican Republic: Village water system rehabilitation, phase 1 implementation
March 2008
- Mississippi, USA: Hurricane Katrina recovery work, trip 4
May 2008
- Guatemala: Hydroelectric water wheel village electric system, phase 1 implementation
- Guatemala: Solar powered water pumping system, phase 2 implementation
- Dominican Republic: Village water system rehabilitation, phase 2 implementation

Visit EWB’s website to learn more about their work and contact them at marquetteewb@gmail.com with any questions.  All students, alumni, and faculty are encouraged to be involved with their work as these projects require a very diverse group of individuals to complete the design, implementation, health assessment, and other project logistics.  Additionally, tax-deductible donations to support these infrastructure projects in the developing world, completely designed by students and mentors, can be sent to: Engineers Without Borders, College of Engineering, Marquette University, PO Box 1881, Milwaukee, WI 53201-1881.  Checks may be made out to EWB-USA with Marquette University noted in the memo line.

Please watch for further updates throughout the year as projects are completed!

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